Bradford lass recently returned from living in Rome. Rediscovering Yorkshire, searching for a decent coffee.

How gay is your pasta?

So Mr Guido Barilla, Chairman of Barilla Pasta got himself in hot water this week by stating that his company’s adverts would never feature gay couples as his company didn’t believe in that type of family. A rather tortuous explanation followed when he clarified that the company wanted to promote the role of women as the centre of the family (if you’ve ever seen the Barilla adverts, it’s a family I’d rather not have any part of to be honest – woman stuck in the kitchen, literally being told to know her place). He compounded his faux-pas by saying if gay people didn’t like it they could buy another pasta. So of course there’s now a boycott. It’s even reached America where they love a bit of outrage and stereotyping of an evening.

Maybe another media-manufactured storm in a pastapot, but most of the responses so far have focused on the fact that Barilla pasta is not exactly one of the best anyway, so it’s a boycott many have previously made. For Italians, it’s the food stupid. Cut to every other pasta maker gaying it up to prove their pink credentials.

It’s a view that is taking its time to be felt in Italy, where people still often hide their sexuality from family for years, if not forever. I do hope that this is finally beginning to change. And as for pasta makers, the old teacher favourite ‘if you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all’ would seem to apply.